From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Pussyhats on the March, Part II
We marched the two-mile route downhill from [Portland’s] Eastern Promenade west to Congress Square.
Then we looked back and saw a sea of people still spilling down from the top of the hill. We walked a mile back to where our parking garage was, and people were still pouring down. Then we stood on a corner and watched the merry marchers cascade down for another hour. It was one of those rare moments when it didn’t seem entirely crazy to question your own lying eyes. And knowing it was happening all over the country made it even more wonderfully surreal. It felt like we were all one gigantic extended family gathering from all points in huge numbers to circle the wagons, lock arms, and prepare to defend our democracy under the banner of the pink, hand-knitted pussy hat. Long may it wave.
---C&J, January 21, 2017
One year ago this Sunday, a day after one of the smallest and most dour (both the weather and the assembleds’ faces) inaugurations in U.S. history, the weather gods parted the clouds across the country and let the rays of hope shine down as millions of Americans poured into the streets everywhere. There could not have been a more perfect signal to Russia’s guy (Trump, I mean, not Putin) that he was in for a rough ride.
So let’s do it again.
The main Women’s March this year is happening Sunday in Las Vegas, a rather significant watering hole in swing state Nevada. The theme is perfect: “Power to the Polls.” Among the speakers will be Congressman John Lewis, Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards, Marisa Tomei, Melissa Harris-Perry, Rev. William Barber, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, and Senator Catherine Cortez Masto.
But there are also plenty of marches happening elsewhere the day before the Vegas event. If you’re looking for a major city to head to Saturday, you’ll find a list here, and a greatly-expanded list of sister marches is here.
If you’re planning to attend one, remember to wear comfortable shoes, spell-check your sign, hydrate, and tattoo NOVEMBER 6 on every forehead in sight.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Note: Today we’ve hired a group of experts to turn the kiddie pool into a relaxing whirlpool. Enjoy. And if you’re a generous tipper, the Whirling Dervishes say they may agree to come back. ---Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the winter Olympics in South Korea: 23
Days ‘til the 29th annual Lowcountry Oyster Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, starring 80,000 pounds of shucked oysters: 12
Percent of the Maine legislature that is made up of women: 34.4%
Number of daily complaints to the FTC over companies and individuals violating the ‘Do Not Call’ registry rules: 19,000
Amount Dow Chemical donated to Trump’s inauguration in exchange for securing more relaxed rules about the use of pesticides that are proven to harm childrens’ brains: $1 million
SAG-AFTRA union minimum for being on a network reality show: $3,239 per week
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Welcome to the club!
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CHEERS to life after Christie. New Jerseyites, rejoice! A huge weight is about to be lifted from your state today as Phil Murphy takes the oath to be your 56th governor. And he ain’t no middle-of-the-roader…
If Murphy has his way, New Jersey will become a proving ground for every liberal policy idea coming into fashion, from legalized marijuana to a $15 minimum wage, from a “millionaire’s tax” to a virtual bill of rights for undocumented immigrants.
Undergirding all of it: automatic voter registration, early voting and the right to register with a political party as late as Election Day. […]
“This state, under the current leadership, has gotten into the belief that if I give something to you,it comes at my expense,” Murphy said. “That’s a myth. Raising the minimum wage does not take from growth, it adds to growth. Earned sick leave gives workers a lot more confidence and adds to their participation in the economy. Equal pay for equal work isn’t, ‘Here, I’ll give this to you.’ It’s confidence, it’s participation.”
Of course, not everything is expected to change. For instance, the time-honored “Three flips of the bird at New York and you’re granted sainthood” rule is expected to remain sacrosanct.
P.S. Meanwhile in Virginia, outgoing governor Terry McAuliffe trolled his Democratic successor Ralph Northam like a pro. Pleasant dreams, pal.
CHEERS to white people against the racist. Martine Aurdal is an opinion writer for the Norwegian Dagbladet newspaper. Norway, you may recall, is the nation from which President Stable Genius wants to import our humans for assimilation, as opposed to all the shitholes around the world populated by black people. One tiny problem: as Aurdal points out, Norway would appreciate it if Lord Dampnut would take his racism and politely [expletive deleted because Norwegians are really polite]:
We like where we live. In fact, Norway is the happiest country in the world. We are that way because we live in an egalitarian society where we strive to give everyone good and equal opportunities---regardless of ethnic, gender and social background.[…]
Our parental leave is a generous year, kindergarten is cheap, and our higher education is free. Healthcare is also free for every Norwegian citizen. Our society strives to be tolerant. Every political party promotes liberal values, gender-equality and human rights. The plumber´s son goes to school with the CEO´s daughter, and social mobility is high. Hence, our leaders have diverse backgrounds and anyone could meet the NATO secretary general skiing in the woods or our Prime Minister at the supermarket doing her own grocery shopping.
So instead of trying to import our whiteness, the US President should try letting some of our ideals in.
Norway’s leader is a woman. Maybe we could move that to the top of the ideal-migration list.
JEERS to bending the moral arc of the universe towards the first tee. Trump’s first Martin Luther King, Jr. Day proclamation was unveiled Friday, and it read in part:
I will now sign the proclamation making January 15, 2018 the Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday and encourage all Americans to observe this day with acts of civic work and community service in honor of Dr. King’s extraordinary life and his great legacy.
All Americans, huh? Hmm……
Trump [did not] partake in any service projects on the federal holiday he and every other US president have designated as a "day of service" since 1994.
Instead, he arrived Monday morning at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The only event on the public schedule released daily by the White House is the flight that will take him back to Washington in the afternoon.
Trump's noticeably blank public schedule Monday comes as he continued to beat back accusations of racism for referring to countries in Africa as "shithole countries" and rejecting immigration from the African continent and Haiti in favor of immigrants from Norway during a meeting with lawmakers.
In fairness, he did replace a divot.
JEERS to messing with The Precious. On January 16, 1919, the tenacious temperance twits in Wyoming became the last ones necessary to ratify Prohibition, which went into effect on January 16, 1920:
Many Prohibition groups, called “dries”, were church-based, mainly Protestant denominations.
The anti-Prohibition groups, or “wets”, tended to be mostly Roman Catholic, Episcopalian and Lutherans from Germany. Both major political parties had wet and dry factions. [W]hen Congress convened in January, 1917, the mandate was clear: regardless of party, dries outnumbered wets in Congress by 2-to-1.
The result: a huge spike in organized crime. The stock market crash of 1929 led to the eventual repeal of the 18th amendment on the premise that reviving the legit liquor industry would create jobs. So you might say that in a weird way the banksters toppled the gangsters. (Although it did take authorities awhile to figure out which was which.)
CHEERS to blowing this popsicle stand. The world may be falling apart, but at least the folks working on our space program will achieve a major milestone today in its ongoing quest to allow humans to flee this planet and escape to the far reaches of the galaxy: a test of the Space-X Heavy Rocket at Cape Canaveral. With 27 rockets delivering five-million pounds of thrust (equal to eighteen 747s), it’s described as “the most powerful rocket to launch from there since the 1970s.” Rock ‘n roll, man….
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SpaceX says it hopes to do an actual test launch later this month. And speaking of milestones, today is the 40th anniversary of the day NASA announced its first diverse class of astronauts, including “the first women, first African-American, and first Asian-American astronauts.” I hope they continue diversifying. In fact, I have a suggestion: let’s recruit the first House Freedom Caucus for our mission to Mars. (Don’t bump your bulbous head on the craft’s door frame, Gohmert. We wouldn’t want to damage it. The door frame, I mean.)
CHEERS to great comebacks. Just as the U.S. has its share of adorable Nazis, so too does Britain. And over the weekend some of them escaped from their mom’s house and decided to hop in their prams and go bother the mayor of London. Sadiq Khan was about to give a speech about how fanatical right wing crazies mustn’t be allowed to barge in and disrupt polite British society when the right-wing crazies barged in and disrupted the assembled polite Brits. Their goal was to arrest Khan for---this is true---disrespecting Donald Trump. They were there to take him outside, parade him in front of a home-made gallows outside the event and, according to their sign, “TAKE BACK CONTROL.” Police took one look at the group and, heeding their words, took back control by booting the Nazis, after which Mayor Khan delivered the coup de grace:
“It is a pleasure to be here even though we were distracted by the actions of what some would call very stable geniuses.”
The leader of the protest, by the way, says the name of his group is called the “White Pendragons.” Which is cool, because when I funnel those letters into my friendly neighborhood anagram generator, it comes up with the perfect name for him: “Wrongest Pinhead”
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Ten years ago in C&J: January 16, 2008
CHEERS and JEERS to the chess king. Bobby Fisher has died at 64. He scored a Cold War victory"against a product of the grim and soulless Soviet Union" (that would be Boris Spassky) in 1972, but in later years said filthy things about Jews and praised the 9/11 attacks. And not many people know this: he may have been a chess prodigy, but he lost 321 games of checkers. In a row.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to discus lite. Wham-O began producing the "Frisbee" 61 years ago this week, back in 1957. Ever wonder where the name comes from?
The Frisbie Baking Company (1871-1958) of Bridgeport, Connecticut, made pies that were sold to many New England colleges. Hungry college students soon discovered that the empty pie tins could be tossed and caught, providing endless hours of game and sport.
Many colleges have claimed to be the home of 'he who was first to fling.' Yale College has even argued that in 1820, a Yale undergraduate named Elihu Frisbie grabbed a passing collection tray from the chapel and flung it out into the campus, thereby becoming the true inventor of the Frisbie and winning glory for Yale. That tale is unlikely to be true since the words 'Frisbie's Pies' was embossed in all the original pie tins and from the word 'Frisbie' was coined the common name for the toy.
Frisbees remind me of the Republican party: Lightweight, logic as contorted as a no-look reverse-flick backhanded corkscrew air bounce, and the only thing that keeps it aloft is spin.
Have a tolerable Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Tourists in Cheers and Jeers spotted this rare white crocodile hanging out in the kiddie pool. Meet Pearl.
---CBS News
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